Nine O' Clock Knock
by egyouppt
Summary: Series of Finn and Kurt lady chats, complete with warm milk.


**A/N:** _hey, hi hello. so I just really enjoy the progression of Finn and Kurt's relationship and so far RBI have avoided giving us a lady chat. Hopefully that changes in the future._

_anyway, thanks to JannP for betaing and always being supportive. And thanks to anyone who reads and reviews this :)_

_disclaimer: funnily enough, I still don't own Glee._

* * *

><p>He hears a knock on his door and calls "Come in," only to find Kurt lingering in his doorway with two glasses of milk.<p>

"Kurt," Finn says. "What's up?"

His brother just shrugs a shoulder primly and enters the room, leaning against the door. "I just thought we could talk." He sets one of the glasses down next to where Finn is sitting at his desk.

"About?"

"Anything," Kurt says lightly. "We're officially brothers now; it wouldn't hurt to set aside a little time for it."

"Oh. Cool," Finn agrees, the corners of his mouths twitching up. He takes a sip of his milk, pulling a face when he swallows it. "Um, why is this _warm__?" _he asks.

"It's relaxing," Kurt insists, taking a sip of his own milk. "And delicious. Take another sip. Now that it won't be a shock it's warm, you'll see."

Finn decides what the hell and takes another sip, the look on his face proving Kurt was right. Or, sort of right. He still doesn't think it's good necessarily, but it's not bad; that's the important thing.

Maybe he'll get used to the warm milk thing, he thinks.

* * *

><p>"You're really leaving?" Finn asks quietly.<p>

"Yeah," Kurt replies, but his voice is sadder, heavier than he's heard it in a long time.

"I'm sorry," he offers again. He still feels like such a dick for not stepping up when he should have. He should have just taken that fucker Karofsky out instead of worrying about his stupid reputation _again._

"So am I." Kurt smiles a little, though, but it actually just makes Finn feel even worse. He loves so many people in so many ways; he's just done a piss poor job at showing it to most of them. He really needs to work on that, doesn't he?

"Look, Finn," Kurt goes on. "I'm not holding anything against you. But this is for the best." He tries to shrug nonchalantly, but the grimace on his face betrays him.

"I know," he says. "That's the worst part."

And yeah, even if he'd stepped up like he should have in the first place, he probably wouldn't have been able to change much. But the thought would have been there, you know? And it's not like he didn't _want_ to.

He's just a little slow on the uptake sometimes; misguided. That's what Rachel tells him, though not unkindly. She just says sometimes he worries too much about what people will think of him. He figures she's right.

"I'm still sorry, though," he adds.

Kurt just smiles a little, for real this time, and holds out his glass of milk for a toast.

* * *

><p>He hasn't heard from Finn all weekend; the boy hasn't come out of his room. And while he wants to celebrate his first place tie from Sectionals, he needs to find out what's going on with his brother.<p>

He knocks softly on Finn's door, but he doesn't get a response. When he enters, he finds Finn huddled under the covers and he's pretty sure he can hear sobs. He feels a little pang in his heart because no matter what the two of them have been through, they're brothers now.

That's far more important than Finn's strange affinity for puffy vests.

He looks around the room, noting that all the pictures of Finn and Rachel have been either thrown across the opposite side of the room, the glass of the picture frames shattered, or placed face down. He knows what happened.

Well, not the details of what happened, at least. But it also explains why Rachel hasn't been returning any of his calls this weekend either.

He walks toward the bed and places a hand on Finn's upper back, rubbing it soothingly. Kurt sets the glass of milk he brought down on the bedside table. "It's okay, Finn," he whispers lamely. He likes to think he's generally pretty good at giving advice.

But he doesn't have experience in this area, and rather than say the wrong thing, he just decides he'll be there for whatever his brother needs him to be there for.

Finn hiccups. "I loved her," is all he can choke out.

* * *

><p>He doesn't know if it's the warm milk that's growing on him or just the fact his step-brother cares about him enough to invite him to have "lady chats." So far, he hasn't done much of the talking, but Kurt loves to talk and sometimes just listening is better anyway. But it's one of the things—talking, that is—and one of the many things, really, Kurt and Rachel have in common.<p>

So most of the time, when Kurt comes into his room at nine o'clock for their nightly milk meeting, he's content to just listen while his step-brother rants and raves and just generally comments about everything under the sun. But the more he gets accustomed to this, and the more he reflects on how similar Kurt and Rachel are, the more he misses her.

So tonight, he changes it up. He speaks quietly, just barely above a whisper when he interrupts Kurt's tirade on wearing leggings as pants to say, "I miss her."

Kurt doesn't even have to ask who it is he's talking about. The boy gives him a sympathetic smile. "She's always open to you, you know that. But you'll need to be sure because she trusts you. You can't take advantage of that, especially not now." His step-brother sips at his milk.

"She's the only thing I've ever been sure of," he replies softly, looking away. That's the truth; it really is.

He just wishes he'd done a better job at showing it.

* * *

><p>"I really thought Quinn would have had more style," Kurt says to him, frowning disdainfully at the "Vote Quinn &amp; Finn for Prom Royalty!" pins scattered around his room.<p>

"Yeah, well," is all he can respond with. He doesn't like them either. Or the flyers or the cupcakes or the way he's in charge of getting all these things out, while his girlfriend goes sauntering down the hall, smiling like they've already won.

He grimaces down into the glass of milk Kurt's brought for him. It sort of makes him feel like he's five again, but in a way, it's cool 'cause things weren't so complicated back then.

"Well, hopefully, she has better taste when it comes to your suit. If not, come talk to me and I'll hook you up," he adds in a whisper, once again glancing down at the pins.

He snorts. It's really not so awesome how his girlfriend is controlling this whole thing, even his outfit. He's supposed to be the King, right? And Kings are supposed to be the ones in charge. And yet he just follows her orders like he's the disgruntled servant instead.

His step-brother sighs sympathetically and places a placating hand on his shoulder.

He wonders who _Rachel_ is going to prom with.

* * *

><p>"Oh, brother of mine!" Kurt sing-songs as he knocks on Finn's door.<p>

"Yes, Kurt?" Finn asks, grinning a little.

"We have an agenda tonight!" He holds out Finn's glass of milk; he sort of wonders how Kurt, and even himself really, haven't gotten tired of the stuff by now. Finn just stares at him.

Kurt sighs," Mother's Day, Finn!"

Oh yeah. "That's this weekend, right?"

Kurt actually almost snorts. He's only been reminding Finn of Mother's Day for the past three weeks. "Yes, Finn," he says with exaggerated patience.

Finn realizes it's not unlike the way Rachel says his name sometimes. But he's trying not to think about her. He waits for his brother to start talking again.

"I thought we could start the day off by cooking her breakfast," the shorter boy suggests.

His lips quirk. "Yeah," he agrees. "That's a really good idea. She'd love that."

Kurt rolls his eyes a little; leave it to Finn to not pick up on the fact there was more to the discussion. Honestly, he wonders sometimes how Finn's head doesn't explode from all the thoughts he keeps internalized. But that only gives him unpleasant images of brain matter blowing up and ruining his new Marc Jacobs jacket. He shakes his head a little.

"Well, _you_ know more about what your mom would want us to cook for breakfast than I do…" he prompts.

"Blueberry pancakes," he murmurs. "With a little bit of cinnamon. My mom used to make them for me when I was a kid; they were my grandma's favorite and hers too," he explains softly, smiling fondly.

"Excellent," Kurt says with feeling. "Now," he says. "Let me tell you what I have planned for the rest of the day…"

* * *

><p>"You sure you're not mad?" Finn asks, wincing a little. It's the first time he's really talked to Kurt since the debacle at Nationals.<p>

"I'm really not," Kurt says, leaning against his door, a glass of milk in his hand—this time, though, it's cold because summer is approaching. "It's like I told Blaine. It was still the experience of a lifetime, and I'm more than confident we can make it again next year—just _please_ try to control your hormones next year. It's our last chance andwe don't need the two of you jumping each other on stage. I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities to walk in on you being indecent, anyway, if this afternoon is any indication."

Finn's pretty sure his face heats up a little. He and Rachel had just gotten back together this afternoon and they'd come back to his place and made out for a while before she had to leave to eat dinner with her dads; he smiles a little at the memory.

"Oh God," Kurt says, pretending to be scandalized. "You're thinking about it, aren't you? I have a feeling I'm going to need to make myself scarce around this house this summer," he adds dramatically. Then he looks at Finn pointedly. "Or _you _will."

He just gives Kurt this innocent little shrug and his brother rolls his eyes and calls him typical.

Finn only laughs.

* * *

><p>Finn glances at the clock on his computer and shuts his browser just in time for Kurt's nine o clock knock. "It's open," he says.<p>

When Kurt comes in, he asks, "Do you think I could convince mom and Burt to let me stay at Rachel's fourth of July weekend? I'm pretty sure her dads won't be there."

"Not a chance," Kurt says laughing. He doesn't have milk this time, but lemonade, as Carole had made some fresh today and it was too delicious to pass up. "They would let you buy a pool filled with kittens before they let you stay over at Rachel's house unsupervised."

"Yeah," he says, his brows knitting together. "Wait…why the hell would anyone fill a pool with kittens? Don't cats hate water?" He squinted at Kurt, confused.

"I didn't say the pool would be full of _water _too." Kurt lifts a shoulder, bringing his glass to his lips.

Finn isn't really sure what to make of that, so he just turns back to his computer. "Do you think I could at least convince them to order pizza for dinner tonight?"

"Well, it's certainly more likely than them granting you a weekend pass to fondle Rachel's breasts whenever you like."

Lemonade spews from Finn's mouth onto the screen. "Dude," Finn says, staring at his brother in horror.

"Oh, please." Kurt gives him a weathering look. "Just because I'm not particularly _fond_ of the female anatomy doesn't mean I don't know how it works, or the fact you know how it works."

Finn groans quietly to himself. He's not sure how Kurt gets all this blackmail material on him, but it's totally gotta stop.

He can't live like this.

* * *

><p>"Finn," Kurt says, with a slight tone of chastisement in his voice. "It's almost ninety-five degrees out. <em>Why<em> are you wearing that vest?" Obviously he likes fashion as much as the next guy—probably more actually. But health is almost as important. And he's pretty sure Finn is going to sweat holes through the vest, and then many his skin.

"You told me Blaine has an audition today," he says. "This is my good luck vest. So…I dunno, I figured it couldn't hurt."

Kurt's face softens a little. Finn may be misguided a lot, and have a habit of getting confused easily, but he's pretty sure no one has a bigger heart than Finn. Even if it could be potentially hazardous to his health.

"That's thoughtful, Finn. Really," Kurt says seriously. "But I'm sure we'd _all_ appreciate it more if you didn't get heatstroke. Look what I'm wearing." He points to the outfit he's wearing. "It's fashionable andnot going to cause me to pass out from heat exhaustion."

Finn purses his lips, then shrugs the vest off, the relief visible on his face. "Damn," he mutters. "I guess I was getting pretty hot wearing that thing…"

And then Kurt can't help it; he laughs. And Finn joins him, though he's not really sure why.

He just likes laughing.

* * *

><p>"So…" Finn starts awkwardly. He doesn't really know what to talk about, since most of what he's done this summer so far is probably of very little interest to Kurt. "How is that musical thing you're writing going?" he asks finally.<p>

Kurt looks up at him and gives him this weird, sort of mysterious smile. "I'm having varying degrees of success," he says. "But overall, quite well. I didn't know you'd remember I was even working on this project."

Finn shrugs. They're lounging out back because honestly, the patio furniture is super comfortable and it's nice outside at night in the summer. "I mean, I don't know that much about it, but I remember you talking about it."

"I think it could be a hit," Kurt tells him. "Actually, I'm _positive_ it could be."

"Probably," Finn agrees. Aside from Rachel, Kurt's the smartest and most talented person he knows. So if anyone could write an awesome musical, it'd be his brother. It's sort of crazy how far they've come. He remembers telling Burt they weren't a family when the four of them were at Breadstix. But now it kinda feels like they've always been a family.

He doesn't tell Kurt, but Finn can tell by the look on his face that Kurt is having similar thoughts. He guesses they're just kinda in sync like that.

It's certainly nothing he's going to complain about. "When it goes on Broadway, you should find a way to cast Rachel," he says.

Kurt smiles over at him. "Already taken care of, Finn."

Yeah, they're definitely totally in sync.

* * *

><p><em>thank you again if you've enjoyed it. reviews are very encouraging. and I might upload another chapter if you guys are interested.<em>

_xoxo_


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